Opportunities, Risks and Governance for Deep Sea Mining in the Indo Pacific

Mineral resources in the Indo-Pacific represent a substantial opportunity to provide the materials required for economic development and the specialist minerals need for the energy transition. Licenses to extract minerals from Deep Sea Mining (DSM) to realise this opportunity are starting to be awarded in the Indo-Pacific. However, substantial risks exist if we do not increase the understanding of impacts upon the marine ecosystem in this nascent field. Governance mechanisms and cooperation across the Indo-Pacific can further improve the management of these risks and the realisation of the opportunity. This project proposes to increase our understanding of the opportunity, risk and governance of DSM through a research collaboration between the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland and the Coastal Ecology and Marine Resources Centre of The Energy and Resources Institute (India), and Two Oceans Strategy, a natural resources sustainability specialist (India).